Even though I’m “starring” on their site I can’t say I’m a regular viewer (or actually ever watch) ABCNews — unless it’s being replayed on The Daily Show or Colbert Report. But I’ve been watching some of the videos, and reading the blog from their week long series on health care. And it appears that their health correspondent Dr Tim Johnson is a raving commie. Or at the least he’ll have his AMA card taken away any minute.
He thinks that the plight of the uninsured is terrible and that we need a national, government universal health care system—and that we’ll get pressure for it within a couple of years. He was asked in one video how to tell if a doctor delivered good care. He said that they needed to a) have information tech on their desk and be using an EMR, and b) it helped if they were part of a big integrated system that checked up on them—and specifically mentioned the VA and Kaiser! I can feel Eric Novack grimacing a state away!
Now all my devotees over here know that that’s perfectly sensible. But Johnson works for the Mouse! Now a more typical employee is John Stossel who dives off a cliff that surely even the Cato guys wouldn’t follow him over by suggesting that health insurance itself is a bad idea. Well we wouldn’t expect a coherent argument from Stossel but he’s lots of fun. (On a quick re-read that’s a little unfair—voluntary high-deductible plans are OK apparently) . But do you really think he turns down his Disney-provided insurance?
But given that GE’s MSNBC unit fired Phil Donahue for being too left wing, and chief Mouse guy himself Walt was a rabid anti-communist, I think Johnson will have to watch his back at those county medical society meetings and at work too!
CODA: Canada-basher David Gratzer is mentioned in Stossel’s report. I’ve read his book (and he’s at least selectively read the Commonwealth Fund studies, if apparently none of Bob Evans’ work). I’ll be interviewing him in a couple of days…should be fun. And to give David a hint, a certain recent speech by a consvervative politician might just come up.
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I love Stossel’s comment about supporting drug company profits so they can plow money back into R and D. I believe there was an excellent article posted here, either from Maggie Mahar or one of the WSJ articles that found that drug company’s had produced very few innovative drugs in the last 10 years and what they do best is fend off generic competitors who are trying to take advantage of them when their drugs come off patent.